A Deviation from the Plan

It was time for our annual Lake Weekend. .

We usually go south to a large lake in northern Oklahoma. .

but, to make sure we weren't missing out on anything. .

we deviated from our normal path and went north. .to northern Kansas. .

to spend the weekend at Wilson Lake instead.

It was a loooooong way. .

taking us nearly 4 hours by the time we stopped to eat lunch and get the rest of our supplies. .

It was enough car time to develop a profound need to move around. .

in whatever form that took on. .

It was cool and cloudy when we got there Friday. .and breezy, making it seem cooler than it was. So, after getting our camp set up, relaxing in a big camp chair seemed to be the thing to do!

 

We were glad for a nice paved road for Devin and Cami's scooters. .

but the big bonus was the hill angling down toward our camp. .

that just screamed at everyone. .kids and adults alike. .to try and take it on!

The temperatures couldn't have been better for sitting around enjoying friends and nature. .but they weren't really good for watersports. .although most of the crew engaged in waterplay anyway! Not this old woman. .I deemed it WAY too cold. .besides. .the majority of the weekend was spent with my sweatshirt on. .and there is just something wrong about putting a lifejacket on OVER a sweatshirt. .am I right?

It was cloudy and cool Friday. .rained Friday night. .

remained rainy and cool ALL day Saturday. .

AND Sunday morning. .until late morning Sunday. .

then the sun finally appeared and it got WARM. .

just in time for the folks with kiddos to start the long trip home.

Saturday afternoon between the sprinkles, Jeremy took us on a little boat trip around the gorgeous lake. There are phenomenal outcrops of rock around the perimeter, and into the bordering pasture land.

The land is quite hilly there. .and dry. .so we were glad that they received some much needed rain while we were there! There was so much pasture land that appeared untouched and uninhabited. .not at all like a crazy busy camping place. .

The lake was quiet. .and that was a charming feature.

                                    

we weren't sure if the quietness caused by lack of campers was because school has started most places. .

or whether it was the rainy forecast. .

or if it is just a quiet place all of the time. .

but we enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere immensely.

As always. .we had GREAT food!!

But the biggest bummer of the trip resulted in a road trip to a neighboring town to buy a gas grill after our charcoal cooking got us busted. We KNEW there was a burn ban and that no campfires would be allowed. We did NOT know that charcoal was also NOT allowable there. .and at 11:15 (when our coals were half done and we had 15 mouths that would be ready to inhale food shortly) we were requested to pour water over the non-flaming embers before the food had even STARTED to cook. .and as the reality of HOW to feed the troops set in. .so did the panic!! The fact that everything was still wet from the rain, and cold from the moist wind was even more aggravating at that point! Lane and I made the trip to Russell to ALCO, a small department store, for a backup plan.

This was NOT the face I was making when we got back to camp Saturday. .
in fact. .I was still so livid. .
that immediately after returning to camp, I left and took a very brisk walk on one of the trails to reconnect with God and get my attitude corrected.

By the time we got back from Russell over an hour later. .The others had made it back from skiing. .restarted the coals in a dutch oven (so they would be covered while they smoldered) and resumed the process of making D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S dutch oven pizzas. And for the rest of the weekend, we cooked on our new little, rickety gas grill. .Not an easy feat when feeding that many people!

While some of the crew played in the water. .others of us sat, visited, read, napped, and played on the shore! I finished the book I was reading. .Courageous. .an excellent fiction story!! And Cami made some new friends on Sunday. .from across the state. .that happened to know some of Jeremy's extended family!! A small world or WHAT???

It is always a lot of work to load up. .

and even more work to UNLOAD. .wash. .and repack our tubs to be ready for the next trip!!

But it is worth it to enjoy a weekend reconnecting with friends, family, nature, and simplistic living!

Before I go, I wanted to share a new combo that we came up with this weekend for dessert! A couple years ago, I shared how to make a dutch oven cobbler. .here's a link to the specifics to follow for the recipe. This can also be made in a large baking dish and baked in the oven, though I have never tried that, so I can't give you cook times. .but in a dutch oven that bakes LIKE an oven, it takes around 30 minutes. Bake the recipe in the link above. .using strawberry cake mix, 2 cans of strawberry pie filling and a Mountain Dew poured over the top. .DELISH!

So, Bye for now. .

Hope you enjoyed the excursion via photo!!

Blessings for you week. .

and thanks for stopping in!

Sometimes Your Luck Just Comes to an End!!

This past weekend happened to be our annual Lake Canton camping trip with our good friends Lane and Cindy and their youngest Harli. And in more than 15 years of camping all weekend in a tent, we've never had to weather a big storm. . .until this weekend. As luck would have it, I let Dev and Tristan bring a friend for the weekend. (Grant and Harli are the same age, so it worked out great.) So not only did we weather a storm out. .we did it with two kids on the first night that have never camped and barely knew most of us!!

We knew going down that there was a 50% chance of rain Friday night. By the time Cindy and I had stopped for some groceries and supplies and got to the camp, it was midafternoon Friday. The boys had put up the tents and unloaded the pickup. They played around on the water for a little while as Cindy and I got organized and came up with our meal plans.  As we enjoyed grilled salmon, scallops, and hot dogs (for the ones without a sophisticated palate) for supper, we watched the sky darken slowly as the clouds rolled in. We messed around some more, letting the kids fix S'mores. We finally decided that it was probably going to rain, and started putting some things up from the "kitchen," (AKA a huge blue tub that has our supplies in it). As the lightening started flashing in the distance, the kids were removed from the water.

As the wind started howling through the trees, we started moving kids into our 50 year old HUGE tent (as we were already sure that their tent may not stay up based on it's initial reaction to the increased wind. .and we put coolers of food in Lane and Cindy's to at least keep it at our camp site if the wind pulled the tent stakes up. Tristan and Jonah ended up in the Yukon during the rain and thankfully had grabbed their belongings and pillows. The rest of us pulled in lawn chairs for a time of visiting. .which didn't last long at all. Soon, the wind was shoving the wall of our tent clear in, the corners were ripping at the seams, four of us were pushing back on the wall to keep it upright as the rain streamed into the tent. .through the new holes being made. The thunder and lightening were right over our heads and we had a LOT of nervous little guys (and at least one nervous BIG girl)!!

The rain pooled up onto the floor, soaked our bedding and our bags of clothes. It was pitch dark, so we couldn't see what was getting wet. .and had no idea of the extent of water infiltration!

It lasted probably around 30-45 minutes before it calmed enough for us to assess the damages. Cami was scooping water off the cot, and you can see yourself how wet that sleeping bag was!! 

There was a burn ban that prohibited open flames this weekend, but we figured after all that rain, we were safe warming everyone up and trying to dry out some pillows to use. It didn't stay dry for long, and another wave of rain WITHOUT the wind came through, sending us all to our wet tents to try to sleep for the night. The rain lasted until after midnight as I prayed that God would mercifully put the kids to sleep for the night! And as I lay on my big man cot, in a dampish sleeping bag, on 1/2 a pillow, squished to the side with a 3 year old taking more than her share of bed, with rain dripping on my forehead. .I discovered a whole new meaning to the song "Rain drops are fallin' on my head." and I laughed out loud hysterically, getting the kids' attention. .No one else thought it was funny. .

Not even a little bit!!

But if you don't laugh, you're gonna cry. .right???

When I walked out of our tent the next morning, the first thing I noticed was that it looked like Lane had moved his bed to the picnic table after the rain stopped! 

The boys' tent was pretty well collapsed. . .

 so it was good that the older two were in the Yukon. The other boys all slept in our tent.

There were lots of limbs down around our campground, and were even worse up the hill a bit. Unbelievably, once the storms had cleared around midnight or one. .people put their boats BACK in the water and carried on with the night fishing!

Everyone was a little droopy and draggy. . .

. .And no coffee for this crew of little guys. .

But the discovery of all these cool creatures perked them RIGHT up. .

. .and the hunt was on!! I actually watched one of the locusts shed its nasty little brown crusty shell. Ick!

The kids loved playing in the water right off our camp site. The sad thing was that the water was SOOO low. .where they are playing and as far as you can look to the left of the photo SHOULD have been under water!! We were amazed. One of the campground volunteers said that in addition to the drought, earlier this summer, Oklahoma City told them to let 4 1/2 feet of water loose to flow down the river to them (apparently they own the water rights, and can request/demand water when they wish.)

While the kids played. .the big people attended to trivial things like fixing breakfast and drying out our belongings. .over the blockade. .

. .the picnic tables and BBQ grills. .

. .and the boat trailer!! It didn't take long for everything to dry out. .and we enjoyed a fantastic, cool morning. .followed by a nice breeze-free afternoon! Perfect camping weather!

We had a great lunch Saturday that removed the rest of the rain soaked memories from our minds!! Lane and Cindy had eaten pizza fixed in a dutch oven some months earlier, and brought their cooking magic to our campground. It was beautiful in the dutch oven BEFORE we cooked it. .

And completely DIVINE looking (and tasting) after we cooked it. If you can imagine. .those two pizzas fed all 11 starving campers with enough small pieces leftover to provide snacks for the ravished children later in the afternoon! I can say with certainty. .that these will be fixed again at our house too! Unbelievably delicious! We also enjoyed hash with bacon, tomatoes, eggs and cheese; biscuits and gravy; sausage, cabbage and potatoes fixed in the dutch oven, fajitas, salmon and scallops, peach cobbler (in the dutch oven), s'mores, and bananas cooked with mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips. I'm sure we all gained a little weight!

The rest of the weekend was spent being silly. .

. .getting makeovers. .

. .watching this little love (yes, I have graduated to dorkisms of a new level. .I brought my own feeder to hang in the tree). .

. .water play. .

. .resting. .

. .fishing. .

. .practicing our "fish whisperer" skills. .

. .and just hangin' out with our buddies relaxin' and enjoyin' life!!

We were so relaxed that when we drove into our driveway Sunday afternoon and saw this. .

. .our trampoline hung over the outdoor furnace. .we didn't even flinch.

Well. .maybe we finched a little bit. .but not much!

 I was just thankful that the wood stove caught the trampoline instead of my greenhouse. .which you might notice about 20 feet behind the stove.

God is GOOD!

We'll look forward to our trip next year. .and the two newbies both said they would go again. .

But they both plan to check the weather first!

Chickens!

 Have a blessed week!

Good Friends, Good Fun

It was the time of the year for our annual weekend camping trip to Lake Canton in Oklahoma.  Our family has been going since 1997 (we found the pictures to prove it the other night while browsing the scrapbook, see previous post).  We have only missed 1 year of going.  The friends that go with us change periodically, depending on schedules, but the couple that we went with this weekend has been going faithfully for the last 10 years!  They have 2 daughters that have moved out and to college and one son that is Grant's age.  The coolest thing is that their oldest daughter Marci, has made an effort to come from Wichita the last 3 years to join us, bringing with her her fiance', who became her husband last year.  Cami was quite smitten with "Robber" this year--and maybe he was a little smitten with her too??

Now, we are not fancy campers!!

We sleep in tents, one of them very OLD, with a small hole in the roof--sure glad it didn't rain on us this year--it has happened before!!

We air up mattresses from our cigarette lighters. J and I each have a cot that keeps our old bones off the hard ground. And the kids sleep in sleeping bags!!

We cook over an open fire--always!!

OK, only if we are not cooking in a hole in the ground!!

Yes, he actually BURIED the dutch oven in a hole--and was still able to find the exact location of it to dig it up-despite the recreational drinking :-) It created the best beef roast and veggies that a person might ever eat!

At times we are even a little unconventional--we pay for an electric campground--because those sites are better--but after many years of drinking nasty campfire coffee with grounds in the water--we started bringing the 'ole kitchen coffee pot!! YUUUM! Nothing better than sittin' in your lawn chair, watching the eggs cook while sipping coffee and listening to the wildlife--before the cranky, sleep deprived kids get active!

Most usually we look a little like this. . . HOOOOTT!!

And it was hot on Saturday--the swimming felt good.  But there was not a blasting hot wind killing us, just a gentle breeze the whole weekend.  Saturday night cooled off nicely and Sunday was nice and cool until we left for home by mid afternoon.  And we were sure excited to hear that we had gotten rain at home Saturday night as well--1.3 inches--woot-woot!

This is one of our favorite activities--just hanging out around the fire visiting and sipping whatever new concoction we have dreamt up.  The guys also fished a little and boated and skiied.  There was also a nice sandy beach just a short walk away--which the kids adored.  Cindy and I enjoyed visiting while relaxing in the lawn chairs as Cami napped on the cot under the tree.  The comradery of our families is such a treat.  Everyone pitches in to help cook, clean, set up, clean up and relax.  I am always the camp "nurse" :-)  And anyone who has ever gone with us is familiar with my pink "doctor box" that houses all kinds of things that one might need--even for pooches who get their bandages wet from swimming in the lake.

We are all food consissuers, and our food is always good. .ALWAYS!! Just ask us! We won't lie.

Lane and Cindy are always good about coming up with new and different recipes to try--like that roast in the fire pit under the earth.  I usually stick with stuff like fajitas and biscuits and gravy.  Though I went out on a limb and made stuffed mushrooms and cheesy garlic bread on the grill.

Don't those peppers just make your mouth water!!?? They were AWESOME.

The boys are also into baking cobblers in their dutch ovens.  This year we had cinnamon apple cobbler, chocolate/black cherry cake, and blueberry cobbler. 

Oh, yeah--and what is a good camping trip without smores. .or just roasted marshamallows. .or just leftover chocolate bars that someone gave her because she just has that power over people!!

A good getaway (and some life-giving rain) does good things for a person's soul!